Belching lakes, mystery craters, 'zombie fires': How the climate crisis is transforming

[Uncle Joe]

the Arctic permafrost


Newly formed lakes in the permafrost landscape of Russia's Siberia.

(snip)

This thawing is waking up the microbes in the soil that feast on organic matter, allowing methane and carbon dioxide to escape from the soil and into the atmosphere. It can also open pathways for methane to rise up from reservoirs deep in the earth.

“Permafrost has been basically serving as Earth’s freezer for ancient biomass,” Turetsky said. “When those creatures and organisms died, their biomass became incorporated into these frozen soil layers and then was preserved over time.”

(snip)

The traditional view of permafrost thaw is that it’s a process that exposes layers slowly, but “abrupt thaw” is exposing deep permafrost layers more quickly in a number of ways.

For example, Big Trail Lake in Alaska, a recently formed lake, belches bubbles of methane — a potent greenhouse gas, which comes from thawing permafrost below the lake water. The methane can stop such lakes from refreezing in winter, exposing the deeper permafrost to warmer temperatures and degradation.


Bubbles of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — appear on the surface of Big Trail Lake in Alaska.

(snip)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/12/world/permafrost-climate-change-explainer-scn/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. This nightmare is here to stay, we won't awaken from it, will we? Thank you,

Unbelievable photos. Wish they weren't real.

Thank you, Uncle Joe.

[Javaman]

2. Imagine a person with two different sized feet...

(I wrote this back in 2011)

one is a normal sized foot and the other is enormously huge, grossly huge, freakishly huge.

Now imagine that person has to have to special shoes to be made. one for the normal foot and one for the oversized cartoon foot.

Further imagine that person has had a long day and their feet are really tired. They decide to take off their shoes...in a crowded room. The first one this person takes off and drops on the floor has a curious name. This person named this normal sized shoe "Carbon".

And so it drops on the floor. Some people in the room were first bothered by the fact that this person chose to take off their shoes in a public place, but when this first shoe hit the floor, only a few concerned people noticed and politely said something to the offending shoe remover.

Now, the person is unlasing the second shoe. The bizarrely oversized monster shoe. This shoe has a name as well, it's called, "Methane".

As the shoe wearing begins the slow process of untying the gigantic laces, not only are the first people who noticed the carbon shoe drop complaining, but other people, the less interested people have actaually turned their head in the direction of the potentially life threating social faux pas.

And when this shoe finally hits the ground, those who didn't complain, will complain the loudest.

[Marcuse]

3. That ain't all...

Thawing permafrost releases greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide and methane – to the atmosphere, as well as causing abrupt changes to the landscape.

However, research, published recently in Nature Climate Change, found the implications of waning permafrost could be much more widespread – with potential for the release of bacteria, unknown viruses, nuclear waste and radiation, and other chemicals of concern.

[link:https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Permafrost_thaw_could_release_bacteria_and_viruses|

[Uncle Joe]

4. Thanks for the addition Marcuse

[Marcuse]

5. Scary.